chicago

Mar 16 2011

Crazy Night in Chicago

Friday night in Chicago went from new and interesting to crazy and exciting. Drupalcon was finished and we were just enjoying ourselves at this point.

We left the Hotel looking for a couple of taxis to take us to our restaurant and ended up taking a limo around Chicago for a good 20 minutes. We ended our ride at Lou Malnati’s where we had to wait 30 minutes for a table. We walked up the street to some fancy looking bar, where Dayan accidentally ordered a $20 bottle of beer she had to finish before going to Lou’s. Once we got to the restaurant we had amazing pizza and Andrew had his incident which ended up getting us a free meal.

After supper we took yet another taxi ride to the John Hancock Tower. At the tower, on the 96th floor is a rather Ritzy feeling bar. It was packed. Windows and people everywhere. Oddly enough because we were a group of seven we got seated rather quickly. We weren’t up the tower very long before taking the roller coaster of an elevator back down to ground level.

It was an odd evening. One I don’t think I will forget anytime soon.

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For some reason not all of the photos are showing, so head to Flickr to see them all.

Mar 15 2011

REVIEW: Free Supper at Lou Malnati’s Pizza

Okay I’m back on Fort St John now, so I suppose I really should catch up on all the blog posts I wanted to do on my trip to Chicago. I figure a good way to continue posts about Chicago I should tell you about Lou Malnati’s.

Lou Malnati’s is a famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizzeria. The pizza is like no other. A thick 2″ tall crust, cheese underneath pizza sauce and all the ingredients. It is almost impossible to eat by hand it is so hardy.

The atmosphere of the place is great, so was the service. You could see the history on the walls and in the staff.

What makes our story of Lou Malnati’s so special was the fact we ended up with a free meal, which we can thank Andrew for once again. While our waitress was serving us our drinks her tray lost balance and tipped towards a wall behind Andrew. So Andrew reacting to the falling glasses reached out to prevent them from falling further, unfortunately one of the glasses had broken before hand and sliced one of Andrews fingers. There was blood, but it didn’t seems all that bad. Martin and Andrew disappeared to bandage him up. You could instantly tell the restuarant was very sorry about it and did everything they could to accomidate us.

We ended up with a completely free meal with dessert. Thanks Andrew.

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See all the photo from Lou Malnati’s on Flickr.

Mar 13 2011

Traveling Home Today

Well hello there, I just wanted to drop a quick line and let you know the team is heading home finally today. Drupalcon ended on Thursday, so we spent Friday and Saturday exploring the city.

I have lots of photos and blog posts I’d like to right out the rest of the trip, but I wanted to also let you know that I wanted to do so. Couple thing have held me back at the moment, one being the hotel WiFi is throttled like no other. The most I can do here is general surfing and writing. For me to upload 20 or so pictures would take a couple hours. The other reason being no time, I have been out and about doing different thing, going new places. Like yesterday, I went to the Chicago Institute of Art, which is apparently the second largest Art Museum.

So in a few ours I will board a plane and fly to Edmonton and then proceed to drive 8 hours back to Fort St John. It will be a long day.

Mar 11 2011

Dayna Manning at Uncommon Ground in Chicago

Traveling with Dayna Manning, is like traveling with a rock star, cause she is one. She’s had a record deal, several albums and can finger pick like no other person I know.

A couple weeks before we took off for Chicago for Drupalcon, Dayna reconnected with an old friend and tried to setup a gig while here in Chicago. Sure enough it happened, pretty much. Dayna got on the list to for an open mic night at a very hip(?) little restaurant called Uncommon Ground.

She was up against 10 or so other performers, but was by far the best taking home have the pot of tips. With her strong voice and amazing guitar playing she captivated the crowd as soon as she started. As the passion in her song was let out, the crowd was silent, not a word was spoken. When she finished the crowd roared and the compliments from the other performers continued throughout the night.

The restaurant was heavy with culture and showed it off throughout the whole place. Colours were everywhere, which made these photo below turn out so amazing. So thanks to Andrew for taking them for me as he was in a better spot.

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Mar 10 2011

View from my Chicago Hotel Room

Going to the big City is alway a fun experience, especially when you get to stay in a hotel room high above the ground floor. Okay so the 16th floor isn’t all the high up, but when you live in a community that doesn’t have a building taller than 3 stories this is cool.

My view is pointing toward the lake, but is blocked by other big buildings. I can see a sliver of the lake. So far while here we have experienced all sorts of weather. One day it was cloudy with a high ceiling, another heavy, heavy fog, one raining/snowing and finally a blue skied sunny day. I think we have experienced every day possible that Chicago can have, well expect for a snow storm, but I can image that.

See all the photos by clicking [Read more…]